Academics at the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh have teamed up to launch a New Linguistic Survey of Scots. The last time that such a large survey was conducted was during the 1950’s, information from which laid much of the basis for the Linguistic Atlas of Scotland and Scots dictionaries published in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Now Robert McColl Millar, who is professor of Linguistics and Scottish Language at Aberdeen, would like to give the Survey an upgrade by collecting new material. Much of the vocabulary used in the 1950’s may no longer be in common use, and since that time other new words and turns of phrase have emerged because language is constantly adapting and changing. The general approach of the project is stated as “Establishing a state of the art sense of Scots usage in Scotland and Ulster.” The 2011 census returned 1.5 million speakers of Scots in Scotland.

If you would like to learn more about the project or find out how you might contribute and inform, please contact Robert McColl Millar at r.millar@abdn.ac.uk .